Wise Words on Weight
(Page 3 of 5)
August/September 2004
by Walter C. Willett, M.D.
Culture. Ours is a culture of living large, of Texas-size appetites where quantity often edges out quality. Indulgence is tolerated, even revered. Just imagine your grandmother urging you to have another helping or the pleasurable groans and belt loosening that end many holiday and regular meals. These are not universal tendencies. In France and throughout much of Asia, the cuisine emphasizes quality and presentation, not how much food can be crammed on a plate.
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On top of that, we have what I call the overproduction problem. U.S. farmers produce 3,800 calories’ worth of food a day for every man, woman and child in America. That’s almost double what the average person needs. The almost inevitable consequence of this surfeit is a system that encourages full-tilt consumption.
The food industry spends tens of billions of dollars a year learning the best ways to entice us, and then acting on that knowledge. The keen senses we have inherited for salt and sweetness that were once needed for survival (our taste for sweet things, for example, helped early humans sort through leaves to find the tender young ones with a ready supply of energy) are continually exploited. The sugar and salt content of products has been ratcheted up to increase our expectations for sweetness and saltiness, and to get us to eat, and buy, more. What’s more, food is sold everywhere.
Three Steps To Weight Control
Given the body’s seemingly innate tendency to gain weight, and the food temptations that bombard us, how can you avoid gaining weight, or lose it if you need to? I suggest a three-pronged strategy:
Become a defensive eater. Watching calories as we age involves more than just selecting certain types of foods or a particular diet. It also means learning how to avoid overeating. Here are a few suggestions:
• Practice stopping before you are stuffed. Recognize that we are victims of our culture, one that glorifies excess.
• Be selective. Don’t eat things just because they are put in front of you.
• Choose small portions. In restaurants, realize that portions are often oversized and that a single meal can contain your entire daily caloric allowance.
• Slow down and pay attention to your food when you eat. When you wolf down your food, you very effectively bypass the intricate set of “I’m full” signals that your digestive system is designed to generate.
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